‘Pressure off’ as champs Visiontrack Ducati reveal 2020 BSB challenger

Josh Brookes has sent out an ominous warning for his 2020 British Superbike Championship rivals by saying the rebranded title winning Visiontrack Ducati team heads into this year’s season with the pressure off its shoulders.

The Paul Bird Motorsport outfit – competing under the Be Wiser banner in 2019 – dominated with the brand-new Ducati Panigale V4 R last season with the combined might of Brookes and Scott Redding clinching 21 victories in 26 races.

For 2020, Brookes will be joined by Christian Iddon with the team undergoing a rebrand courtesy of its new title sponsor Visiontrack.

Launching the 2020 bikes 300m above London in The Shard, Brookes says he feels less weight of expectation coming into the season having put in the hard graft last year to ensure the Ducati Panigale V4 R met the manufacturer’s expectations of the title in its first year.

“I don’t think there is a lot I need to do differently this year,” he said. “We had an almost perfect year last year, I won ten races in the season and was five points off winning the championship so there is only a small margin of change needed to go better. I don’t feel we need to change a lot of things, we should keep doing things the way they are.

“I feel like last year there was a lot of pressure on with this bike, it was brand new for last year so Ducati as a motorcycle supplier perspective they were putting a lot of pressure and expecting the bike to perform straight away so as a rider you feel that you carry that expectation.

“However, having already won the championship with the bike, it takes that pressure off and we can focus on our job day-to-day.”

Iddon joins the title winning team after four years riding a BMW S1000RR for the TAS Racing team. He is looking forward to riding a proven winning package.

“The track record of the Paul Bird Motorsport team speaks for itself and I enjoyed those few days. It’s different for me from the last few years because I’ve ridden a bike before we get to round one, so I already feel like I am in a better position than I have been.

“I am in a privileged position because the team were 1-2 and the bike was 1-2-3 [in 2019] and as it stands Josh is the best rider in BSB, so I have a great team around me. Last year the team did a lot of work doing the really big stuff, so I will be “piggy-backing” from all their work last year.”